[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 145 (Friday, October 7, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         YEAR OF THE GIRL CHILD

  The text of the joint resolution (S.J. Res. 188) to designate 1995 
the ``Year of the Girl Child,'' as passed by the Senate on October 6, 
1994, is as follows:

                             S.J. Res. 188

       Whereas girls are the most neglected, deprived, and 
     mistreated resource in the world;
       Whereas girls throughout the world are frequently condemned 
     to a cycle of poverty, illiteracy, unwanted pregnancy, and 
     poor health;
       Whereas it is not uncommon for girls in certain regions of 
     the world to become pregnant at the onset of puberty, and to 
     continue to become pregnant thereafter, damaging their health 
     and increasing the chances that they will suffer 
     complications during pregnancy;
       Whereas girls in developing countries are fed less, 
     withdrawn from school earlier, forced into hard labor sooner, 
     and given less medical care than boys in those same 
     countries;
       Whereas numerous studies indicate that girls are 
     disadvantaged by the perception that they are temporary 
     members of a family, and by the belief that boys will become 
     the main financial source for the family and, therefore, are 
     more deserving of scarce family resources;
       Whereas parents of girls in some regions of the developing 
     world frequently choose to resort to infanticide, rather than 
     drain family resources to raise girls;
       Whereas girls in the United States and in other countries 
     are exploited and victimized by sexual abuse and child 
     prostitution;
       Whereas the most recent study of child sexual abuse in the 
     United States shows that, of the cases reported, 23 percent 
     of the victims were males and 77 percent were females;
       Whereas, by any measure, including test scores, curriculum, 
     or teacher-student interaction, girls in the United States 
     receive an unequal education;
       Whereas studies indicate that in developing countries where 
     girls have as little as 4 to 6 years of formal education 
     there is a 20 percent decline in infant deaths;
       Whereas girls with at least a seventh grade education have 
     half as many pregnancies as girls with less education;
       Whereas the World Health Organization estimates that 
     improved education for girls, and improved family planning 
     services for women, would reduce maternal deaths by 15 to 33 
     percent; and
       Whereas the World Fertility Survey indicates that the age 
     of a female at marriage increases with the number of years 
     she has spent in school, and that with as little as 7 years 
     of education, a female is more likely to marry at 22 than at 
     17: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
     United States of America in Congress assembled, That 1995 is 
     designated the ``Year of the Girl Child''. The President is 
     authorized and requested to direct all diplomatic personnel 
     of the United States, and the Secretaries of Education and 
     Health and Human Services, to encourage at every appropriate 
     opportunity--
       (1) the opening of educational opportunities to girls;
       (2) gender equality in health care; and
       (3) gender equality in all phases of family and community 
     life.

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